Google forwarding numbers let you report on the calls you receive through call extensions, offering details like call duration, call start and end time, caller area code, and whether the call was connected. You can count phone calls of a specified duration as conversions and use automated bidding strategies to increase likelihood of conversions.

Good to know

Call extensions with Google forwarding phone numbers are only available for numbers based in Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US.

Call extensions in Display-only campaigns don’t support forwarding numbers or calls as conversions.

When you use a Google forwarding number with your call extension, we’ll assign a unique Google phone number to your ad. This phone number, which is either toll-free (Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, US) or equivalent to a local number (UK), or a local number if available (Sweden, the US), will show with your ad on tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. A clickable “Call” button will show with your ad on high-end mobile devices (such as iPhones and Android devices with full Internet browsers).

With forwarding numbers, you’ll be able to see the details of your calls, and count them as conversions.

Example

A travel agent notices that she’s gotten more phone calls since adding call extensions, and wants to better understand this phone traffic. She adds a Google forwarding number to her call extensions, and now she can see where her customers may be calling from (with the area code), when they’re calling, and how long the calls last. She sees calls lasting more than two minutes tend to lead to sales, so she chooses to count those calls as conversions. Later, she sees that her conversions are coming from the 717 area code, so she thinks about targeting ads to the corresponding region.

When a customer calls the Google forwarding number listed with your call extension (on desktop) or clicks the call button with a Google forwarding number (mobile), the call will be rerouted to your business phone number.

If you have caller ID, it'll work as usual. The number of the caller will show up, even though the call is being routed through the Google forwarding number.

Ads with low traffic: Google forwarding numbers may not show with desktop ads if your ad group isn’t getting a minimum number of clicks in a four-week period. Your business phone number will be shown in that case. (There’s no minimum requirement for ads on high-end mobile devices.)

Outside of Google ads: Custom Google forwarding numbers shouldn’t be used for any other purpose (except where you used these numbers for website call conversion tracking). These numbers are a property of Google and can change or be reassigned at any time.

When you enter a local number for your call extension, we'll assign a local Google forwarding number. If available, local Google forwarding numbers will share the same area code or prefix number as your business; otherwise, a local number area code or prefix for your geographic region will be used instead. (Note: This feature is currently only available in Sweden and the US. In some cases, a local Google forwarding number may not be available. When this happens, your ad will show a toll-free Google forwarding number instead.)

Good to know

Your Google forwarding number is designed to track your online ad performance for call conversions, and your number(s) may change between ad groups and vary over time. Therefore, we don't recommend that you post or promote this number beyond your online ad campaigns with AdWords.

Pricing

It's free to use Google forwarding phone numbers with your ads, but you’ll be charged as usual (a standard CPC) when people click on your ad or on the call button (shown on high-end mobile devices). You won’t be charged when people manually dial your custom Google forwarding number.

Click the Ad extensions tab from a Search or Search with Display Select campaign.

From the View drop-down, choose Call extensions.

Click the + Extension button.

Click the + New phone number button and add the business phone number you want your calls forwarded to.

Next to "Show my ad with," choose “A Google forwarding number and use call reporting.”

Complete the remaining preferences (you can change these later). If you choose to show "Just the phone number," your ad headline will display your business phone number, but call the Google forwarding number when it’s clicked.

Click the » button next to the phone number you'd like to forward calls to in the "Phone numbers" box.

The phone number will be listed under "Selected phone numbers." Click the pencil icon next to the button to open the “Edit phone number” window.

Next to "Show my ad with," choose “A Google forwarding number and use call reporting.”

Complete the remaining preferences (you can change these later). If you choose to show "Just the phone number," your ad headline will display your business phone number, but call the Google forwarding number when it’s clicked.

Track performance of your calls

You can see the phone impressions, phone calls, and phone-through rate by adding special columns to the statistics table of your campaign or ad group.

Phone impressions are the number of times your ad was shown with a Google forwarding phone number.

Phone calls are counted when calls to your custom Google forwarding phone number are received, either through a call button or through manual dialing.

The phone-through rate (PTR) is the number of phone calls received (the figure in the “Phone calls” column) divided by the number of times your phone number is shown (what’s shown in the “Phone impressions” column).

Set up columns to see call details

Click the Columns drop-down above the statistics table on the Campaigns or Ad groups tab.

With Google forwarding numbers, you can track calls that tend to be long enough to make a sale, and count these as conversions. With call conversions, you can use automated bidding strategies like Conversion Optimizer and Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) to increase your likelihood of conversion.

When creating or editing your call extension (see steps above), check the Count calls as phone call conversions checkbox to set up calls as conversions. Select the conversion action you’d like to link to this extension. If you haven’t already created one, we’ll create one with a default call length of 60 seconds. You can also see how to create a new conversion action for calls from ads.

Tracking call conversions works the same as tracking other conversions. Looking at "Converted clicks" makes sense to watch if a single phone call is important to your business (if you’re signing on clients or getting a lead), and "Conversions" is useful if phone calls are important every time they happen (when you make a sale).

View your call conversion data

To see your conversion data and pull conversion reports for call conversions from mobile devices, click the Tools tab in your AdWords account, and select "Conversions."

To see conversion data in your campaign statistics table for calls from desktops and laptops, or a manual call from a customer:

Choose the campaign or ad group you want to work with.

From the Columns drop-down menu, select Customize columns.

Add the columns you want from the "Conversions" category by clicking Add. To find your estimated call conversion data for desktop and tablet ads, add the "Est. total conv." column.

Click Apply.

Your call conversion data will appear in your campaign or ad group table in one or more rows reflecting conversion actions you've created. Conversion actions will appear on their own row with the source shown as "Calls from ads." The conversion value defaults to $1 in the US, £1 in the UK, and €1 in Europe.

To optimize your call conversions, use one of these automated bidding strategies.

Conversion Optimizer predicts which clicks are likely to be valuable, then changes your bids to help you get as many profitable clicks as possible. Learn more about Conversion Optimizer

Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC) bidding is similar to Conversion Optimizer, except ECPC works with the maximum CPC bid that you set, while Conversion Optimizer doesn't. Another difference is that Conversion Optimizer modifies 100% of traffic, while ECPC modifies 50% initially, and then moves that percentage up or down based on how it is performing. Learn more about Enhanced CPC.

If you don’t want call conversions to be included in your standard conversion reporting, you can either opt out of call conversion reporting for your Google forwarding numbers, or switch to your own business phone number. By using forwarding numbers but not counting phone calls as conversions, you can still get advanced reporting on your calls from the Dimensions tab, as described above.

Here’s how to turn off call conversion reporting for your Google forwarding numbers:

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